


Blue Lightning

by badgerdactyl



Category: Puyo Puyo
Genre: Angst, Gen, Possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-06-18 01:46:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15474768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgerdactyl/pseuds/badgerdactyl
Summary: There's an accident in the lab. Ringo heads up to the roof to cool off.





	1. Chapter 1

The sound of glass shattering across the floor of the lab brought with it a deafening silence. Neither Ringo nor Maguro dared to make a move as the chemicals that were once contained by the beaker started to spill out onto the tiles. She quickly furrowed her brow, her mind fuming as she stared at the mess. She picked her apple off of the lab table and held it in her hand, the skin quickly bruising beneath her fingertips. “If I’ve told you once-”

“You’ve told me a hundred times, ★” Maguro finished, setting his kendama onto the lab table and dashing over to the cleaning closet. “I know, I know - I’m sorry, ★” he added as he walked back over and started to mop up the puddle.

“One hundred and  _ twenty-four  _ times, Maguro!” She sat down on the nearby stool and collapsed herself onto the table, her apple gently rolling across her notes. “Tell me again -  _ why _ did you think it was a good idea to play with your kendama in the lab?”

“I didn’t-” he sputtered, stopping himself and letting out a sigh. He set the mop back into the bucket and wheeled it back to the closet. “Look, I’m  _ really _ sorry. I’ll help you restart your experiment as soon as I finish cleaning up, okay? ★”

She let out a groan as she ran her fingers through her hair. “My experiment,” she whined, picking up her head and pulling down on her pigtails, “took me over an  _ hour _ just to set up! I wanted to get this done today so I didn’t have to worry about it - now I have to start all over!” She let go of her hair and dropped her head into her hands.

“That just means it’ll be even easier when you do it this time, right? ★” Maguro walked back from the closet and set the dustpan down near the glass. He turned to her and heard her mumbling in her hands before letting out a sigh and leaning the broom against the table. He walked to her side and gingerly set his hand on her shoulder. “I promise, I’ll help-”

“Don’t,” she snapped, picking her head up slightly and glaring daggers at him. As he recoiled and put his hand down, her expression fell. “I just-” she started, sighing and pulling her hands down her face. “I’m sorry, but I’m  _ really _ not in the mood to talk right now.” She pushed herself up from the stool and made her way to the door. “I’m going to the roof to cool off. Thanks for cleaning up.”

“Ringo? ★”

As she reached out for the handle, the door swung open. Risukuma jumped back from the opposite of the doorway and put a paw over his chest. “Oh, Ringo, good afternoon!” He moved his paw to just under his chin and let out a hum. “Judging from that expression, I take it the experiment didn’t go as planned?”

She walked forward with her head hung low. “I’ll tell you about it later, Ris,” she said sullenly before making her way towards the stairwell to the roof.

Risukuma dropped his arm to his side as he watched her start to climb the stairs. He poked his head into the laboratory and saw his other club member leaning the back of his hip against the table with his hands in his pockets. “Any chance  _ you _ can tell me what happened here, Maguro?”

 

Ringo sat with her back against the railing of the roof, her fingers rubbing against her temples. She closed her eyes and took in a breath of fresh air, heavy with the promise of rain, and let go of it slowly, trying to force her negativity out one breath at a time.  _ Everything is going to be fine_, she told herself as she exhaled.  _ It’s not a huge setback. _

_ Are you kidding?  _ the other part of her mind argued. Inhale.  _ You’ve told him over and over again  _ not  _ to mess around in the lab. You  _ know  _ this isn’t the first time he’s messed something up for you_.

She dropped her hands to her lap.  _ He didn’t do it on purpose. _ Exhale.  _ It’s not that big of a deal. I can just start over tomorrow after school. _

_ Is that so? _ Inhale.  _ Then, why are you so upset about it? Don’t you  _ want  _ to be angry? _

“I  _ don’t _ want to be angry,” she sighed, releasing her breath all at once. She folded her arms across her chest. “I just want to relax for a second.”

“Well,  _ that _ doesn’t sound like very much fun~!” a voice called out from behind her. She picked her head up and looked from side to side before feeling something wet drop onto the top of her head. Wiping it off with her hand, she looked up and spotted a familiar blue and black blob of void resting his arms along the top of the railing. “You still remember me, right, Ringo~?” he asked with a grin, another drop of drool falling from his mouth, this time landing square on her forehead.

She narrowed her eyes as she wiped it away with her sleeve, the haze in her memory lifting away as she looked at him. Something inside of her clicked and her expression fell at once. “Ecolo? What do  _ you _ want?”

He let out a cheer as he tossed himself over the railing and turned in midair. “I saw what happened downstairs,” he said, drifting gently downwards, folding his legs in the air and landing with a soft  _ thud! _ in front of her. “That Pretty Boy sure is a jerk, ain’t he~?”

She turned her head and bit the corner of her lips. “He’s- It was an accident,” she said softly, folding her arms. “I’m sure he didn’t mean it.”

Ecolo put his hands in his lap, leaning forward with hum. “But, still~! You told him a  _ billion _ times not to mess around and he did it anyway! That experiment looked  _ really _ important too and he just  _ ruined _ it for you!” He threw back his head with a laugh and added, “Even  _ I’m _ not  _ that _ bad, right~?” before starting to rock back and forth in place.

She dropped her shoulders and glared at him. “I’m kind of not in the mood to talk right now.”

“That’s fine~!” he exclaimed, springing upright and planting his hands on his hips. “We can just play together until you get your mind off of it~!”

“Ecolo,” she said, her voice as low as the rumbling clouds rolling in over the horizon as she put a hand to her forehead. “I came up here to be by myself, okay?”

“Huh~?” He gave her a pout as he whined, “But, I really want to play with you~!”

“And  _ I _ really want to be left  _ alone_, okay?”

“Well, we can’t  _ both _ get what we want at this rate!” He let out a chuckle and offered his hand out to her. “You know, there’s only one way to settle this, right~?”

Ringo stared into his eyes, her face stern and her eyes narrowed, before she sighed and stood up. She looked down at his hand, still extended outward and looked back at his face, trying to sense some sort of motive. When she found none behind his drooling smile, she sighed again and said, “Let me grab my textbook,” before starting to walk to the stairwell.

“Oh, that silly thing~? You don’t need it!” he exclaimed, bursting into a puff of smoke and reappearing in front of her. “Besides, you don’t want Fuzzy Lab Coat and Pretty Boy getting in the way, do you?”

She narrowed her eyes and tried to sidestep him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He flashed her a grin, another drop of drool splashing against the rooftop. “I’m just here for a little fun~! They’re gonna think I'm up to something no good and try to shoo me away like they always do~!”

“You’re  _ really _ not making a good case, here,” she replied flatly as she walked around him.

“They’re not gonna trust you either.” He watched as she stopped in place and turned her head over her shoulder at him. He suppressed a smile and added in a low voice, “They won’t think you can handle it. Isn’t that why they’re always holding you back? Isn’t that why they always go out of their way to  _ sabotage _ you~?”

She clenched her fists and whipped around to face him head-on. “After I beat you, I’m going to make you pay for what you said about my friends,” she said, her voice cold and steely despite her body shaking in rage. “Do you understand?”

Ecolo threw back his head and let out a laugh. “Sure, sure~! _If_ you beat me, that is!” He zoomed out to a space on the roof as she took her place opposite of him. “Are you ready~?” He grinned as he saw her nod and he threw his hands into the air. “Then, let’s go~! Puyo Puyo Battle!”

Ringo held out her arm as she started to drop her Puyos, her other hand feeling awkward and light without a book to hold.  _ I should have just grabbed it anyway, _ she thought, dropping another pair into place. She narrowed her eyes, dropping pair after pair as she imagined Maguro and Risukuma in the lab and their reactions. Their concern. Their protests. She closed her eyes and quickly shook the thought from her head.

“Eh~? You slowed down a little bit there, Ringo~!” he called, his voice dripping with false concern. “Here, take this~!  _ Liar!_” He rose up slightly and, with a twirl of his arm, launched out a blue fireball in her direction. It bounced once, twice against the rooftop before evaporating into energy, sending a small amount of Nuisance towards her.

Ringo hardly flinched as she weathered the attack and quickly adapted her strategy, placing Puyos over the Nuisance until, with a smirk, she spotted an opening. As she started to drop the final piece into place, she traced the end of the chain with her eyes and frowned.  _ It’s a strong spell, sure, but how do I cast that without my textbook? _ Before the chain set off, she spun the pair and dropped it elsewhere, narrowing her eyes again and focusing on a way to extend it.

“Yoo-hoo~! You still in there? Come on, come on~!  _ Liar!_” he taunted, launching another ball of blue flame towards her. “Aren’t you usually better than this? Got something on your mind~? Or, maybe you really  _ weren’t _ capable of taking me on yourself. Wow~! I can’t believe those two were-”

“ _Shut up!_ ” she cried, her voice a roaring threat like the thunder nearly overhead as she set her final pair into place. “I’m ending this right now -  _ Permutation!_” She took a step back and lept into the air, expecting a gust of wind to propel herself higher but quickly felt herself sink back down and crash against the roof. She propped herself up on her hands and knees and looked up with dread at the unfinished chain in front of her.

Ecolo’s laughter rang in her ears, quickly followed by the sound of his chain popping. “You know, you’ve got some  _ really _ incredible potential, Ringo~! But, see, when you get all angry like that,” he paused, grinning before his voice dropped low, “you end up making some  _ really _ bad mistakes.” He swept his arms outward, a ball of swirling, writhing smoke forming just above his head as he cackled. The smoke condensed into a bright burst of light as he cried out his spell, “ _Imitation!_ ”

Ringo pushed herself up, her head dizzy and her heart pounding in her chest as she tried to salvage her chain. While Ecolo’s attack manifested into a dark cloud of Nuisance overhead, she dropped her final pair into place.  _ It’s not going to be enough! _ her mind shouted as she stepped back and threw out her arm, electricity sparking and crackling in her open palm before jumping out as bolts of lightning. “ _Sine!_ ” As soon as the spell left her hand, she felt the crushing weight of the Nuisance collapsing on top of her. She fell down to her knees and tensed herself as she tried to withstand the rest of the attack.

As the last Puyo fell onto the pile, Ecolo let out a cheer. He hovered over to her and cleared away the debris with a flick of amorphous hands. He laid down onto the floor in front of her and propped his head up in his hands. “That was fun, wasn’t it~?”

“I’m not going to be any fun to be around,” she snapped, pushing herself up into a kneeling position. “You know, since I lost and you said terrible things about my friends?”

“Oh, that’s fine~!” he said, floating upright and mimicking her pose in midair. “Like I said, I just wanted to  _ play _ with you!” In the blink of an eye, his form turned hazy and dissolved into a smoke that quickly dissipated into the air.

“Ecolo?” She jumped up and looked all around her. “What did you-” she stopped, the smell of sulfur and ozone burning down her throat as her heart pounded harder in her chest. She let out a groan as she held her head up with one hand and clutched at her side with the other. “You-” she started, her stomach churning and her eyes watering, “you can’t do this.”

“You know, everyone always says that~!” his voice said as it reverberated throughout her head. “But, I always prove them wrong in the end. It’s really just better to assume I  _ can _ do something~!”

The pressure in Ringo’s head felt like a balloon nearly bursting, her body convulsing as Ecolo’s cackle echoed and burned in her ears. She winced at the pain and closed her eyes, her throat letting out a scream she couldn’t hear as her spirit was suddenly shunted from her body. All at once, the pressure disappeared and she felt cold. Frozen. No, numb. Completely and utterly numb. She opened her eyes and pulled herself onto her feet and caught sight of the tiles of the rooftop beneath her translucent hands. “What…” she started with a whisper, turning her hands out in front of her as she took another ragged breath. “What is this?” Her eyes widened into saucers as she looked up and spotted herself, solid and standing tall beside the railing. “What did you do to me?”

Ecolo took a moment to admire his new form before looking back at her with a smirk. He gave her a wink before he turned on his heels and faced the railing.

“I know you can hear me!” she shouted as she approached him, her arms trembling at her sides as she balled up her fists. “Answer me!”

“Not now, Ringo,” he replied as he set his hands down on the railing, the sound of his voice coming out of her body sending shivers down her spine. “We’re just about to get to the fun part, you know~?”

She stared for a second, stunned, and swallowed a breath. “This  _ isn’t _ funny, Ecolo!” She charged forward, a fist pulled back and ready to swing before she stopped in her tracks and turned at the sound of someone frantically climbing up the staircase.

Maguro slammed open the door from the stairwell and stood panting in the doorway, his hair disheveled and his face pale. “Ringo!” he shouted breathlessly before running towards her. “What happened? ★”

Feeling a faint flutter stirring in her chest, she ran towards him. “It’s Ecolo, again! I think he’s possessed me or some-” She stood still, gasping, as Maguro ran straight through her. She dropped her head, her eyes wide with shock, her body frozen and raw, and her heart engulfed in dread.

“I heard you scream! ★ Are you-”

“Didn’t I say I wanted to be alone?" Ecolo said, his voice cloaked in Ringo’s. “No, that’s right.” He tightened his grip on the edge of the railing. “I said I didn’t want to talk to you anymore. Isn’t that right?”

Maguro stood just behind him and winced, hanging his head low. Hesitantly, he looked back up and held his hand out towards him. “Ringo, I-”

“What, does that hair of your block your ears, too?” Ecolo whipped around with a scowl and leaned in close. “I don’t want to talk to you! I don’t even want to  _ look _ at you, okay?” He lifted his arm and started jabbing into Maguro’s chest and forcing him back with each word. “Just leave me  _ alone_!”

His words stinging in her ears, Ringo turned around. “How  _ dare _ you talk to him like-”

“Okay. ★”

Her heart sank. She stood speechless, only able to blink as she stared at the back of his head. “Maguro?”

“I get it.” He turned around slowly, dropping his hand to his side as he started walking back towards the stairwell. “If that's what you want, I’ll leave you alone. ★”

Ringo staggered forward towards him before she broke into a sprint. She stood in front of him with her arms extended and cried, “Wait! Don’t go!” as he phased through her, sending another cold, empty shiver throughout her body. She turned on her heels and tried to grab the back of his collar, her fingers again moving straight through him with no resistance. “Maguro, that’s not me!”

Another set of footsteps echoed in the stairwell before Risukuma stepped out onto the roof. “What happened out here?” he asked as he approached Maguro. “Is everything-”

“Yeah. She’s alright, ★” he replied, bringing a hand up behind his bands and rubbing his eye. “I’ll tell you about it in the lab,” he added in a low, hushed voice. “Everything’s fine. ★”

“No!” Ringo watched helplessly as Risukuma put his arm around Maguro’s shoulders and lead him back down the stairwell. “Guys, please!” she shouted as she followed them to the doorway, stopping just as the door slammed in front of her. Stunned, she staggered backwards and dropped to her knees, her head hanging low. “Don’t go.” She sat motionless, faintly aware of Ecolo approaching her side. “They think you’re me.”

“That’s  _ kinda _ how it works, Ringo~!” he said in his own singsongy voice.

“Even though…” she started, clutching at her sides and squeezing herself as tightly as she could, her body still numb to the touch. “Even though you said-”

He interrupted her with a laugh. “That’s the thing, though~! It turns out that when you get upset,” he paused, ducking in front of her face and dropping his voice down low, “you  _ really _ get upset.”

“I…” She sat frozen in place, unfazed by his attack and unable to acknowledge the translucent tears landing on the rooftop just beneath her. “He  _ really _ thinks I would…”

Ecolo stood himself upright and shrugged. “Hey, try not to worry about them~!” he said, gleefully holding his hands out at his sides. “After all, I’m here to have fun with  _ you_, remember~?” He beamed a smile at her and waited for a reaction before slumping over with a grumble. “Well, when you decide to stop being so  _ mopey_,” he whined, sticking his tongue out at her, “you can meet me downstairs.” He turned around and opened the door to the stairwell, looking back and adding, “Don’t keep me waiting~!”

Overhead, the clouds finished rolling in and, as if heaving a sigh, the rain began to fall. The thunder in the clouds roared as the rain fell faster and heavier, turning the sky completely dark. The relentless rain pounded against the rooftop, raindrops tearing through Ringo like bullets, every one of them feeling like cold, cold lead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll give this a proper ending later, but I hope you enjoy it as it is now~! Comments, questions and criticisms are always appreciated <3


	2. Chapter 2

Maguro paced circles around and around the lab, his hidden brow furrowed as he anxiously rubbed his thumb against the end of his tie. “She’s…” he paused, deepening his frown. “She’s mad at me. ★”

“Well, that’s not entirely unreasonable, you know,” Risukuma called while seated on a stool at the lab table. He collected Ringo’s notes into a pile, tapping them once, twice against the tabletop to line them up in his paws. “After all, you  _ did _ interrupt her experiment with your accident,” he added, looking over her notes before setting them back down. “It stands to reason that she would be more than a little upset-”

“Oh, she has every right to be mad at me -  _ that’s _ not what I’m trying to say, though! ★” He threw his hand to his side, the other quickly swinging up to his tie to replace it. He stopped in front of the table, still rolling the fabric against his fingers. “It’s just-” he stopped, bringing his free hand up and clutching it as if trying to pluck his thoughts out of the air. “I’ve never seen her this angry about  _ anything _ before.  _ Never_, Ris! And, trust me, I’ve given her, like,  _ plenty _ of opportunities! ★” He began pacing back and forth in front of the table, waving one hand wildly around while the other continued to tug on the end of his tie while he spoke, his throat getting tighter and tighter with each word. “I nearly broke every plate in her house, accidentally pushed her into a puddle the day of a big presentation, spilled food on a new sweater she had been saving up for, dropped her phone into the river, lost her grandmother’s memento on a class trip and even tried to steal-”

“Maguro, calm down!” Risukuma shouted, springing up from the stool and loosening the tie around his gasping friend. He firmly placed his paws on the younger boy’s shoulders and waited for him to control his breathing. “Let’s think rationally about this,” he said softly, his voice like velvet as he removed his paws and folded his arms across his chest. “Why do you suppose this time is different?”

“I…” He dropped his head and clenched his fists in front of him. “I don’t know.” He swallowed a lump in his throat and closed his eyes, trying, trying and failing not to think about the harshness of her voice, the hatred burning in her eyes or the ache in his chest as she threw him away. “I really don’t know. ★”

Risukuma lifted his head with a hum before returning to the other side of the table and sitting down. “Talk it out. Tell me what happened.”

“I  _ already _ told you,” he groaned, thankful his hair covered up the glare he shot towards him. “I went and messed things up again. ★” 

“Explain it again, then.”

Maguro rolled his eyes with a sigh. “I was goofing off in the lab. I tossed my kendama up for a trick and it bounced off my hand on the way down. It went flying and slammed into the beaker she had set up on the table. She got mad at me, I cleaned it up, and now she hates me forever. ★”

Risukuma took his paw to his forehead and dragged it down his face. “What did she  _ say _ to you?” he asked, putting his paw under his chin and propping his elbow on the table. “Can you remember?”

“Let’s see… ★” He scratched the back of his neck before slipping into a falsetto that sounded absolutely nothing like Ringo’s voice. “‘I’ve told you a million times not to play with your kendama in the lab’ and ‘This experiment took me forever to set up’ and ‘Gosh, Maguro, you’re so stupid - you always mess everything up.’” He looked over to Risukuma’s wide-eyed expression and sighed. “She didn’t say that last one,” he admitted. “I just kind of always assume it’s implied. ★”

“Let’s just focus on things she  _ actually _ said, okay? Was there anything else?”

Maguro folded his arms and started tapping his foot. “I mean, I tried saying sorry to her and I cleaned up the spill, but that was about it. ★”

“She didn’t react to your apology?” he asked, tilting his head.

“Look, I don’t get what talking about this over and over again is going to-”

“Just answer the question, please.”

Slumping his shoulders with a sigh, Maguro closed his eyes. He hummed as he tried to replay the earlier events in his head. “She said that she was sorry when I tried to apologize,” he murmured picking up his head. “Then, she thanked me for cleaning up the mess and went up to the roof. ★”

Risukuma let out a long hum before picking himself up and pulling out the stool next to him. He motioned for Maguro to sit down next to him as he asked, “Doesn’t it strike you weird for her to be apologetic in her anger in one moment and then denouncing your friendship in the next?”

“I guess so… ★” He took a seat beside his senior before slumping himself down onto the table. He propped his head up on his hands and let out a sigh. “Wait,” he said, turning towards him slightly, “ _is_ that weird?”

Risukuma learned forward and matches his pose on the table. “Well, to me, it almost sounds like she became a completely different person after going to the roof. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Maguro’s heart stopped cold in his chest and the blood drained from his face. He sprang up in his seat, and turned completely towards him, resting his hands on his knees and opening and closing his mouth a few times as he surveyed the possibilities in his head before letting out a breathless, “No way… ★”

“I’m not necessarily saying that I  _ want _ that to be the case,” he explained, sitting upright and folding his arms across his chest. “However-”

“We can’t just say because she’s mad that she’s not Ringo, Ris! ★” he snapped, tightening his hands against his legs. He huffed once, twice, before adding, “For starters, saying that she can’t just be angry feels like…  _ really _ scummy. ★” He bounced his foot against the leg-rest of the stool and dropped his head, his hands drawn back to fiddling with his tie.

“You’ve known her longer than I have, Maguro,” he said, putting his paw to his chin. “There’s something that bothered me earlier - has she been known to scream when she gets exceptionally angry?” 

“N-No? ★” he stammered. He tilted his head and thought back to the two of them standing in the lab, how in the blink of an eye he found himself halfway up the stairwell at the sound of her scream, the pained and frightened sound still echoing in his ears. He clutched his arms in front of his chest as his expression fell. 

Risukuma stood up from the stool and started walking around to the other side of the table. “Did you have another reason to think it’s still her? You said ‘for starters,’ earlier.”

"I..." Maguro pulled his arms closer into his chest. “If that’s not her…” he started, swallowing a lump in his throat. “If  _ Ecolo _ did something to her, I’m going to make him regret ever coming to Suzuran in the first place. ★”

With a smile, Risukuma nodded his head before clearing his throat. “Well, then. Now, we have our hypothesis. Our next step is to test to see whether or not it's valid.”

“What do you mean ‘whether or not?” he cried, springing up and nearly knocking over the stool. “That has to be the only explanation, right? ★”

“What did you say earlier?” he asked with a tilt of his head. “That’s assuming that Ringo acting differently meant it wasn’t actually her was ‘scummy? ★’” He put his paws to his hips. “There’s always a chance that our hypothesis is wrong. The Ecolo Theory is just that - a theory.”

Maguro pulled his hair and let out a groan. “Why would you let me get my hopes up like that, Ris? ★” he shouted, throwing his hands to his sides and beginning to pace around the table again. “I can’t just  _ ask _ her if she’s possessed! If she is, Ecolo would just tell me ‘no’ and if she  _ isn’t_, she’s just going to get even more upset with me! It’s a lose-lose situation! ★”

Risukuma rolled the pads of his paws against his sides. “There must be  _ something _ we can do - something that only Ringo would know about, perhaps?”

“I’m not too sure there  _ is _ anything like that, ★” he said with a sigh, still clenching his fingers in his hair. “Can’t we just wait this out? That way, if it  _ is _ her, she won’t have to hate me forever? ★” He dropped his hands to his sides and slumped his shoulders as he leaned against the end of the table.

“That isn’t an option and you know it.” Risukuma walked in front of him and rested a paw on his shoulder. “She’s your friend - you owe it to her to try and understand each other.”

“But-”

He put up his other paw to silence him. “You have to talk to her. If she’s  _ truly _ this upset, you can give her time to heal and we can work on a way for you to earn her forgiveness. And,” he paused, bringing his other paw to his other shoulder, “if our theory is correct, we have to remedy the situation. Do you understand?”

Maguro folded his arms in front of him and looked down, unable to meet his gaze or match his determined expression. “But,” he murmured, “what if we just make the whole thing worse? ★”

“Sometimes, we have to take risks for the ones we love.”

He stood still, his heart stirring in his chest as he tried to come up with a retort. He opened and closed his mouth once, twice, before letting out a sigh and burying his face in his hands. “You’re right,” he said with a muffled groan. “You’re absolutely right. ★” He dragged his fingers down his face and added, with half a chuckle, “I keep forgetting all of this crazy magical stuff is an option sometimes. Thanks, Ris. ★”

Risukuma took his paws from his shoulders and splayed them out in front of him, picking his head up in time to watch Maguro fuss with the protective bangs he wore over his incredibly captivating eyes. He opened his mouth to protest but closed it after a moment of consideration. Instead, he folded his arms and asked, “What do you propose we do?”

“I think I have a plan. ★” 

 

Had she the energy, Ringo would have hypothesized a great many things as she stood inside the subway train: Why did her hand waver through the handrail as the train sped towards home but her feet never sank through and dropped her out on the tracks? Would she fall through if she tried a handstand instead? If she phased through the door, what would happen to her momentum - would she continue to zoom along before hitting the tracks? Instead of these or any other banal thoughts she could have had, she thought of nothing. Her new form numb and cold, chilling further as she phased in and out of other train passengers, she could think of only her exhaustion and how terribly and utterly -

_“Just leave me_ alone _!”_ _  
_ _His words stinging in her ears, Ringo turned around. “How_ dare _you talk to him like-”_

_ “Okay. ★” _

_Her heart sank. She stood speechless, only able to blink as she stared at the back of his head. “Maguro?”_ _  
_ _“I get it.” He turned around slowly, dropping his hand to his side as he started walking back towards the stairwell. “If that's what you want, I’ll leave you-”_

\- alone she felt.

Tucked inside of her body like a nesting doll beside her sat Ecolo, idly kicking his legs back and forth off the side of his seat. He turned his head this way and that at the passengers nearby before directing his attention to her with a bright, beaming smile. “You know,” he said softly, still wearing her voice over his, “you've been  _ awfully  _ quiet~!” 

Ringo stared dead ahead out of the train door window and said nothing.

“Still,” he added, dropping to a slightly sinister whisper, “you’ll have to tell me how to get to your house from these weird metal worm tunnels. Otherwise, I'll just end up totally lost~!” He tossed his hands into the air with a laugh. “Wouldn't that be something~? Just you and me - lost down here forever. Now,  _ that _ actually sounds like fun~!”

Across the aisle, a woman with a bright orange sweater and a bewildered look in her eye leaned forward. She tapped him with the end of her umbrella, splashing a few raindrops on him as she said, in a tone full of concern, “Young lady, are you alright?”

“Oh~!” He eyed her up and down before flashing her a smile. “I'm just talking to my friend here,” he explained, cheerfully gesturing towards the empty space Ringo occupied. “You can't see her, I know, but trust me - she's there~! Sorry if I worried you, Pumpkin Lady!”

“ _Excuse _ me?”

As she gaped, looking down at her sweater, the lithe woman next to her sprung up into the aisle. “You wanna try saying that again, kid?” she said, looming over him with a fire in her eyes.

The train ground to a halt as it entered the station. As the doors started to open, Ecolo caught Ringo dropping her hand back to her side and wordlessly step onto the platform with the flow of the crowd. He flashed a grin at the imposing woman as he jumped up. “Sorry, sorry, but, I think this is my stop~!” In a flash, he ducked into the crowd and jumped out of the train car.

Ringo drifted through the station, her feet following the familiar path she’d taken countless times before, her body instinctively weaving through the crowds despite the intangible nature of her form. She made her way to the next platform, her head hung low and her fingers twitching slightly as she held her hand out expectantly for someone to take it who would -

_ “Ris, give me your hand!” _

_ He turned, seeing Ringo’s hand extended out to him, her other hand already latched onto Maguro’s. “What for?” he asked, obediently relinquishing his paw to her. _

_ “Supposedly, this part of the station wasn’t built correctly and the gap between the platform and the train is bigger here,” she replied as the train started stopping in front of them. _

_ “Legend has it that, if you aren’t careful, you can slip right through here -  _ whoosh! -  _ and vanish without a trace! ★ ” Maguro added with a wave of his free hand. _

_ “And, pray tell, how exactly does holding hands keep us safe?” _

_ “Well…” She trailed off as the doors opened. _

_ “If one of us falls down, we’ll all go down together! That way, nobody gets left behind! ★” _

\- never be there again.

Ecolo sauntered up to her side and, with a smile, exclaimed, “I was almost worried I’d lost you~!” the sigh of relief he exhaled afterward betraying his relaxed expression. “It’s so hard to see you in a crowd when you’re all see-through like that - even with that bright red hair of yours~! Luckily, I  _ always _ know how to find  _ you, _ Ringo~!” He rocked back and forth on his heels, waiting for both the next train and for a reply. With a frown, he turned towards her and yawned. “You know, it’s not very nice to ignore people.” Receiving another reply of silence, he waved his hand in front of her vacant gaze. “Anybody home~?” Grumbling to himself, he dropped his hand to his side and pouted. “At least you’re still  _ leading _ me to your house. Maybe, by the time we get there, you’ll be all cheered up and we can do something fun~!”

The train crawled to a stop at the station and Ringo, her hand still held out for its partner, stepped carefully over the gap and onto the train car that would take them home.

 

“Didn’t Ringo give you a key after the  _ last _ time you broke into her house?” Risukuma asked, holding his umbrella over their heads as Maguro fiddled with a lockpick at the front door. 

“Nah - pretty sure it was the time before that, ★” he replied, turning the handle with a  _ click! _ and smiling. “Think I only used it once cause I came over the same time her parents came home from work. Figured it’d be polite to open the door for them the  _ right _ way. ★” With a shrug, he carefully swung the door open and stepped inside. As Risukuma walked in and closed the door behind them, he exhaled and tried to calm the pounding of his heart. “Come on. Her room’s this way. ★”

As they tiptoed down the hallway, Risukuma leaned forward and whispered, ”Do you want me to go in with you?”

Maguro let out a low hum. “Stay by the doorway, ★” he said at last, stopping in front of her bedroom door and turning towards him. “If it’s  _ her _ in there, there’s no point in dragging you down with me. Just be ready to charge in if something happens, okay? ★” After sharing a nod, he turned his attention back to the door towering in front of him. He swallowed hard, his head hung low and his fingers twitching slightly as he held his hand out towards the door and rapped his knuckles against it. “Ringo? ★”

From behind the door, he could hear the sound of her springing up from her bed followed by silence. He set his hand on the doorknob, ready to say add something, when he heard her say, “Door’s open?” in a puzzled, monotonous voice. Narrowing his eyes, he opened the door and stepped inside, a chill working its way down his spine and a heavy, ominous cloud hanging overhead as he spotted her folding her arms and furrowing her brow beside her bed. “Oh. It’s  _ you_.”

“Yeah, I know, ★” he said, leaving a crack in the doorway behind him before walking further inside. “I just wanted to say-”

“I don’t  _ care _ what you’re going to say.” Ringo tossed her hands in the air with an exasperated sigh. “I told you before - I don’t want to talk to you anymore!”

“I… I  _ know _ that’s what you said, but-”

“‘But’, what?” She huffed as she started to pace around the bedroom. “That’s the thing - you don’t  _ ever _ listen to me! How does-” she cut herself off, clenching her jaw shut before turning towards him. “How am I even supposed to be  _ friends _ with you if you don’t ever listen?”

Maguro winced before taking a step towards her to put his hand on her shoulder. “Ringo… ★”

“Don’t you even  _ dare_!” she roared, shoving him aside and glowering. “I don’t want to have  _ anything _ to do with you anymore - do you understand?” She scowled as he stood in front of her, unable to move or speak. She leaned in, emphasizing each word as she repeated, “Do you understand me?”

“I do, ★” he said, his voice shattering like a dropped glass against the floor. “I do. I- Ringo…” He froze, stopping to swallow a lump in his throat and try to steady himself. “You’re my best friend. You mean the world to me and I am  _ so _ sorry I made you this upset. If you…” he paused again, letting out a shuddering sigh before picking his head up and staring into her eyes. “If you really want me to go… If it’ll make you happy, I will walk out the door and never speak to you again. ★”

Ringo looked him up and down, her eyes darting around as she tried to read his expression. She folded her arms and, after watching him stand still in front of her, scoffed. “Well?”

He tightened and relaxed his fists at his side before taking a step closer to her. “I’m just having a hard time believing all of this,” he sighed, his eyes starting to water behind his bangs. “I’ll leave, I promise, but, I want you to look me in the eyes when you tell me to go. ★”

She rolled her eyes as she marched forward and loomed over him, their foreheads almost touching. “Go away,” she said flatly. She stared at him before scowling and adding, “I hope I never see you again.” Her eyes darted around again at his unflinching expression and she furrowed her brow. “Just leave me alone already! I hate you and you’re a stupid jerk!” she shouted, balling her fists at her sides as he stood dauntlessly in front of him. “ _Why don’t you just _ go _ already?” _

“I told you,” he said, his voice calm and low, despite his hands trembling at his sides, “I want you to look me in the eyes when you say it. ★”

“I don’t know what you-”

“Yes, you do. ★”

She leaned back and put her hand to her forehead, closing her eyes with a sigh. “Look, Pretty Boy, I don’t-”

Maguro seized her wrist and tore his kendama from his neck in an instant. Gripping both tightly, he bared his teeth, pulled her down to eye level and growled, “Say that again. ★”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mags rubbing his tie when he's anxious was ~~shamelessly~~ borrowed from SuperMaguro64 uwu  
>  Sorry this took so long, everyone! Had a really rough time getting my thoughts in order and then I got _crazy busy._ There's one more chapter after this and it's already drafted! So, maybe another week on that? Thank you so much for sticking with me~  <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up! I didn't _forget_ anyone's spells here - this is a 20th Ani inspired double battle~! If you've never played or seen a double battle, I highly encourage you to check them out :D

Ecolo glanced up at Maguro, his scowl giving a solid impression of the rest of his expression, then down at his wrist, clenched tightly in his vice-like grasp. His eyes darted back up to the door as Risukuma, flasks at the ready, stormed into the room with a matching scowl. With a slump of his shoulders, he let out a sigh and slipped into his own voice. “And I was trying to be  _ so _ careful, too…”

Maguro pulled on his wrist again and glowered as the thunder roared outside. “Give Ringo her body back  _ right now _ or, so help me, I’ll-”

“S-Stop!” Ringo’s voice whimpered as Ecolo winced. “You’re hurting me!” As Maguro’s expression fell, he stole back his wrist and took a few steps back, his laughter slipping seamlessly from Ringo’s to his. “So, it’s gonna be like this, huh~?” He narrowed his eyes and broke into a wide grin, a drop of drool falling from his mouth and splashing against the hardwood floor at his feet. “Pretty Boy and Fuzzy Lab Coat are gonna try to-”

“I’m not going to ask you again! ★” Maguro snapped, lunging forward only to stop in place as Risukuma brought a steady paw down onto his shoulder. He furrowed his brow and clenched his kendama in his hand.

Ecolo rolled his eyes with a scoff. “Geez, Pretty Boy, you’re so  _ annoying, _ you know~?” With a chuckle, he set his hands on his hips. “It’s no wonder that Ringo got so tired of you~!”

“She can tell me that  _ herself _ once we’re done with you, ★” he huffed, his whole body tense with anger and anticipation.

“Agreed.” Risukuma took his paw from Maguro’s shoulder and tightened his grip on his flasks before standing directly beside him. “We’ll simply have to beat you out of her. Let’s begin. Puyo-”

“Wait wait wait~!” Ecolo whined, crouching slightly and putting his hands out with a pout. “Two against one  _ hardly _ seems fair, don’t you think~?”

“Did you think attacking our friend in a moment of distress was particularly fair?” Risukuma narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, watching out the corner of his eye as Maguro did the same.

Ecolo simply shrugged. “She was the one who agreed to play with me - I didn’t do anything at all~!” He looked at their unchanging expressions and flashed them a smile. “Here, you can even ask her yourselves~!” In an instant, Ringo’s eyes rolled back in their sockets and her shoulders slumped - her head lolled on her neck as the rest of her body collapsed onto her knees. Maguro raced forward to try to catch her but stopped in his tracks as Ecolo reappeared in a puff of smoke in front of him. “Relax, Pretty Boy~!” he said with a laugh. “She’s gonna be just fine - you’ll see~!”

Maguro opened his mouth to protest and felt his heart freeze in his chest as he watched Ringo take in a sharp, shuddering breath. Slowly, he watched as she picked herself up from the floor, arms and legs trembling all the while, with her head hanging low and her eyes glassy and vacant. “Ringo? ★” Maguro called softly, saying her name in a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. He felt his hands grow cold and clammy as she stood unflinchingly still at the sound of her name. He repeated her name once, twice, three times more, his heart pounding frantically in his chest as she stood unresponsive to her name. He turned to Ecolo with a scowl. “What did you do to her? ★”

“Don’t look at me - I didn’t do anything~!” he retaliated, swirling around and floating in circles around her, a quizzical expression on his face. “I mean, nothing more than usual, anyway. I’m controlling her, sure, but she should still be able to talk and stuff.” He stopped in front of her and waved a hand in front of her face, calling her name in a singsong voice. “C’mon, Ringo~! I know you’re in there~!”  

Risukuma turned to Maguro and nodded before turning towards Ecolo. “We’ve had enough of your games - you’ll let her go  _ this instant_.”

“Really, Ringo, you’ve been so quiet all day,” Ecolo said softly, utterly ignoring Risukuma’s threats and deepening his frown. “You’ve said, like, two whole words since we left the roof! You’re usually so much more fun than this…” 

" _Ecolo! _ ★”

“Fine, fine,” Ecolo sighed, turning around with a roll of his eyes and taking his place beside Ringo. He placed his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest before taking one of his hands and pointing it at the boys. “The two of us will accept your challenge!”

“Wait - the  _ two _ of you? ★”

With a cackle, he tossed both hands into the air, a bright flash of light bursting out from the ceiling. “Let’s play~! Puyo Puyo Battle!”

Maguro and Risukuma jumped back with a start and, after sharing a look of determination, began planning out their chains. Maguro narrowed his eyes as he tried to focus on the oncoming Puyos -  _ Put the reds over here, yellows on top of those and.. Greens? Yeah, I can probably pop some greens down here…  _ ★ - but quickly felt his eyes drawn across the room. Ecolo’s chain looked, unsurprisingly, as erratic and inscrutable as ever. As for Ringo, his heart turned to stone in his chest as he saw her empty eyes and lifeless hand extended outwards, mindlessly laying out pair after pair of pair of Puyos into a random patchwork - nothing like the mathematically elegant chains he had always admired from her.

“Ringo,” he called out, setting another pair fall into place, “I’m so sorry. All of this is my fault. ★” He let out a sigh as she once again made no reaction to him. Furrowing his brow, he stole a glance at Ecolo before looking back to Ringo. “I promise you - we’re going to beat Ecolo for you and set things right. Just keep fighting! ★”

Chuckling, Ecolo tilted his head towards Ringo. “You know, Ringo, that almost sounds like he wants you to fight with  _ me~!_” 

Maguro scowled and opened his mouth to protest when his ears perked up at the sound of Risukuma starting his chain. He snapped back to attention, spinning a piece and narrowly avoid ruining his own chain. He looked out the corner of his eye, waiting for Risukuma’s chain to draw to a close, before placing his final pair and adding his chain’s power to the attack. He locked eyes with Risukuma and, seeing the end of his chain draw near, nodded. He swung his kendama into the air as Risukuma leapt backwards and pitched a flask against the floor, the glass shattering and its contents exploding into a burst of flames. As they flames dissipated into condensed magic, Maguro caught the handle of the kendama and watched as the ball landed on its spike, sending out a shower of star-shaped lights. “ _Take this!_ ★”

“ _Attack!_ ” Risukuma held out his free hand towards the broken glass and, concentrating the little magic he possessed at his fingertips, reshaped the flash and brought it to his hand as the pile of Nuisance Puyo they created shot across the room and hung over Ecolo and Ringo.

Ecolo smirked as he set his final pair into place and watched as Ringo proceeded to do the same - the two chains ping-ponging back and forth as the Puyos popped. “Take  _ that~!_” he cried, throwing his hand forward and letting out a stream of bubbles as the mountain Nuisance darted back to the other side of the room.

Bracing himself for impact, Maguro winced as he dropped his Puyos into place. Upon feeling the lack of Nuisance falling down, his eyes snapped open. As their chains neared their end, Ecolo, leaning on one hip, gracefully pulled his hand up over his head, a disk of scribbling blue lights appearing just under his feet as he tossed out a burst of bright blue flowers. Maguro watched as Ringo robotically lifted her hands above her head and swung them down slowly and stiffly in front of her, a trail of stars tracing the arc of her swing before shooting outwards and upwards. As every piece of light and magic swirled into Nuisance, his heart froze as he heard her murmur, “ _Be that as it may…_ ”

“ _Attack~!_ ”

Maguro scrambled to set off a counter chain - something,  _ anything _ to delay the inevitable wave of Nuisance crashing down on him and Risukuma. “I’m not going to give up on you! ★” he cried as his Puyos began to pop - his chain far too small to make a dent in the damage. “I don’t care if we have to challenge him over a hundred times - we’re not going to lose you! ★” He clenched his fists at his sides and sighed as his chain finished and once again braced himself for impact.

“ _Mystery solved!_ ” Risukuma stomped his feet against the floor and waved his arms out at his sides, purple clouds of smoke billowing out of the sleeves of his lab coat as the Nuisance shot back over to the other side of the room. His chain continuing to fall and gather more power, he turned to Maguro with a pointed look. “We’ve just gotten started,” he shouted, gesturing towards him with a grin, “so don’t give up yet!”

Ecolo chuckled to himself as he watched his opponents, determination shining brightly in their expressions, trade their chains back and forth, steadily causing the Nuisance overhead to grow larger and denser. He counted out the chain he was planning -  _ Seven, eight, nine and ten~! Maybe even an eleven~?  _ \- and grinned, knowing it was easily enough to counter their attack on its own. He turned to look at Ringo’s chain - not that it was entirely necessary, what with building it himself in his mind’s eye - and then to his partner. His face fell into a frown as he saw her eyes still dim and vacant, completely void of their usual spark.

Puyo battles were supposed to be  _ fun! The funnest~! _ Ecolo couldn’t always understand why people wore so many different expressions during matches - happy, sad, determined, worried, confident, timid - but he still recognized each and every one of them. The apathy - the utter  _ lack _ of expression on her face confused him to his very core. “Ringo?” he murmured, his voice barely audible against the sound of popping Puyos. “You’re not having any fun, are you?”  He watched as she blinked and wordlessly continued to place her pairs. With a sigh, he waved a hand in her direction and turned back to his chain, catching out the corner of his eye as her hand, no longer being puppeteered, fell limply to her side.

Risukuma held his flask out in front of him, swirling it as the liquid inside turned a deep red. He held out his other paw, sending out a burst of light resembling chemical compounds made of pawprints, his eyes glowing as they shook, shimmered and shattered into waves of rainbow-colored lights. “ _Heartfelt!_ ”

“ _Attack!_ ★” Maguro finished, tossing his kendama into the air and spinning on his heel. As he turned back around, he effortlessly caught the handle and flicked his wrist, the ball landing in the center-point between two cups with a sudden and absolute stillness before releasing a brilliant beam of light.

“I’m sorry, Ringo,” Ecolo said softly, turning his pair and purposefully slamming it out of place. “Maybe we’ll have more fun next time~!” He smiled an unflinching smile as the Nuisance stormed down, piercing through and dissolving his form until nothing but his shimmering, swirling core remained floating in the center of the rubble.

Maguro let out a cheer and threw his fist into the as another wave of Nuisance crashed down on top of Ecolo. He pumped his fist as be brought it down, his face quickly changing from elation to fear as he watched a pair of Puyos quickly drop down to his field. He looked up at the next pair falling from the ceiling then over to Ringo as her next pair nestled into place. His heart pounding, he abandoned his place, his kendama falling carelessly behind him as his legs carried him across the room, darting around the piles of Puyos. He tackled her to the ground, tensing his body as he shielded her from the onslaught of incoming Nuisance.

Risukuma dashed over, dodging collapsing chains, and quickly kneeled down beside the ever-growing pile of Nuisance. He began digging through the wreckage, pushing and throwing stay Nuisance Puyos until is paw connected with a shoulder. Maguro let out a groan as Risukuma pulled him into a sitting position as the Nuisance began to fade away. “Is she-?”

“I don’t know. ★” Maguro placed a hand beneath Ringo’s back and sat her upright, frowning as her head lolled around on her neck. “Where did-?”

“He’s gone,” he replied, turning his head and glaring at the core of light hovering behind him, watching it descend slightly, as if sighing, before dissolving into nothingness.

Maguro took Ringo’s hand into his, wincing as the coldness of her fingers chased a chill up his arm. “He’s gone now. ★” He tried to give her hand a reassuring squeeze, unable to hide the quiver of panic in his voice as he repeated, “He’s gone now. Everything’s gonna be fine now, okay? ★” His hand began to shake as he swallowed a lump in his throat. “This  _ never _ should have happened to you. I’m  _ so _ sorry - I know this is all my fault and-”

Ringo squeezed his hand and closed her eyes, her expression collapsing all at once as her eyes tried and failed to hold back a flood of tears. Her body began to tremble as she held his hand even tighter and took in a sharp, shuddering breath. She turned to him and threw her arms over his shoulders, letting out sob after hiccupy sob over his shoulder. His wrapped his arms around her body like a blanket and pulled her in closer, rubbing circles into her back and murmuring warm reassurances into her ear. “Maguro, I’m sorry” she cried, tightening her grip around him and letting out a sniffle as he returned the favor. “I’m so sorry,” she repeated once, twice, several times over like a mantra, clutching onto him as if he were a life preserver and she was drowning in a stormy sea.

He lifted his head off of her shoulder, his relieved expression quickly muddled with a new sense of unease. “Ringo,” he said, his voice a cocktail of concern and confusion. “Ringo, wait. ★” He took his hands to her shoulders and pulled her from him, his heart aching to see her hands fly to her face to rub her eyes. “There’s nothing for you to apologize for. None of this was your fault. ★”

“It _was_ , though!” she cried, taking her hands from her eyes and clutching them together tightly below her chin. She pulled her arms in closer to her chest and dropped her gaze. “If I hadn’t-” she stopped, letting out another sob before closing her eyes, sending a cascade of warm tears onto her hands before taking in a shaky breath. “If I hadn’t been so angry earlier, none of this would have happened.”

“What? ★ No way - that’s-” he paused with a grimace, pressing his tongue to the back of his teeth and swallowing the word ‘stupid’ that had nearly escaped his lips. He put his hand to her head and wiped a tear away from her face with the other, blinking back the sympathy tears in his own eyes. “Ringo, please, you have every right to be mad. This was all  _ my _ fault - if I hadn’t broken the beaker earlier in the lab-”

“Still, though!” She pressed her hand against his and narrowed her brow and she took it from her face and held it out between them. “I shouldn’t have just stormed off like that. I should have-”

“ _I _ shouldn’t have been playing around in the lab in the first place! ★” he protested, leaning towards her and tightening his hold on her hand. “You’re allowed to get angry -  _ especially _ when I go and mess up and-”

“Okay, but-”

Risukuma cleared his throat. “If I could interject?” He waited for the two to turn their heads towards him before folding his arms “If I recall correctly,  _ Ecolo _ was the one who took advantage of your situation and caused all of-” he stopped, scrunching his face and turning his paw around at the wrist, searching for a better word before settling for, “-  _ this_. If you were to ask me, I’d go ahead and say that it was  _ his _ fault. If placing the blame is so important to you two, you might as well blame him.”

Maguro turned his head back to her with a chuckle. “Sounds fine to me! ★” He quickly rubbed his eye with his free hand and set it on top of Ringo’s before offering her a soft smile. “Are you gonna be okay? ★”

A faint smile on her face, Ringo looked down at their hands, the memories of her out-of-body experience swirling around in her head. She frowned as she folded her arms and let out a sigh. “Ecolo,” she murmured, pulling tighter on her arms. “He said such  _ awful _ things to you. Did you really…?” She let out another sigh before looking up and, despite his hair hanging in the way, staring directly into his eyes. “Would you really have left me alone like he asked?”

“If  _ Ecolo _ had asked? Absolutely not. ★” He scanned the stillness of her expression and gulped, taking a second to carefully consider his next words. “Ringo, listen to me,” he started, taking one of his hands to his tie and rolling his fingers over the fabric. “You are my best friend, okay? ★ Your happiness means the world to me.” He closed his eyes and took in a breath, dropping his gaze as he reopened them and, in a voice cracked and raw, added, “If  _ you _ told me that you would be happier without me, then…”

Ringo widened her eyes, her jaw opening slightly as she unfolded her arms and took his hand from his tie. “Maguro, look at me.” She waited a moment before squeezing his hand and offering a smile. “Please?"

He deflated with a chuckle, relenting and looking into her eyes. “How do you always know when I’m not looking at you? ★” he asked, a reluctant smile on his face.

“Because you’re  _ my _ best friend, too.” She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. “Why would I ever want you to go?” She closed her eyes and leaned back with a laugh before adding, “What - just because you broke a beaker means that we can’t be friends anymore?”

He rolled his thumb over her knuckles and tried to smile. “That experiment was important to you, though, ★” he protested as his face fell into a frown.

“Well, yeah, of course,” she said, eyeing his kendama laying on the floor on the other side of the room, "but, you’re  _ way _ more important to me than that. You’re going to have to break a lot more than just  _ one beaker _ for me to be  _ that _ upset with you.”

Maguro smirked. “Oh, yeah? ★ How much more is ‘a lot more,’ then? Just so I know my limits, you know? ★”

She took back her hands to cover her face as she let out a giggle. “I haven’t really thought about it.” Closing her eyes, she put a hand to her chin and hummed, tilting her head this way and that as she pretended to be deep in thought. “Judging by the things you’ve  _ already _ broken,” she said at last, opening her eyes and bopping the tip of his nose with her finger, “I think, at this point, you’d have to break literally  _ everything _ I owned.”

“Well, I’d say he’s off to a good start here,” Risukuma said, turning their attention back to the bedroom. He gestured to the toppled bookcase, the pile of books splayed out around it, the dented work desk, the mess of papers and pencils scattered across the floor and the scorch marks blossoming against the floor. As Ringo stared wide-eyed at the utter chaos around them and Maguro buried his face into his hands, Risukuma let out a chuckle. “I suppose this is why people always ask to take fights outside.”

Maguro let out a muffled groan and muttered, “We are the  _ worst_, Ris. ★”

Ringo stood up and brushed off her skirt, planting her hands on her hips as she walked to the center of the room. “Tell you what,” she said, turning on her heel to face them. “I’ll forgive you for the  _ heinous _ crime of destroying my room if the two of you offer to help clean up. She bent down and offered her hands out to each of them with a smile and pulling them up. She looked at both of them for a moment before throwing her arms around them, pulling them into a warm embrace and smiling even wider as they wrapped their arms around her in return. 

Outside the window, the clouds let out a sigh as the rainstorm trickled to a stop. The sun’s rays broke through the remaining clouds and turned the dour grey of the sky back to its usual splendor. All at once, there was a silent, warm peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! This fic took a lot of hard work to get right but I'm hoping the effort was worth it. If you have any questions or comments (or just want to say hi!) go ahead~! <3


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